ASU's Programming and Activities Board must hold public elections for a new president and vice president, the student government Supreme Court decided Monday.
The court ruled in favor of Dan Moody, a math and economics junior, who filed a complaint March 29 about the way the board chose its 2004-2005 officials on March 24.
The board voted in a closed-door meeting to appoint journalism junior Ferron Dunham and political science and Italian junior James Pedicone as president and vice president, respectively.
The court's 4-1 verdict found that process unconstitutional.
The student court found that PAB did not meet the requirement that the elections be held in a "publicly announced meeting." The board also did not give "any Associated member," defined as any ASU student, the opportunity to vote on the decision.
Michael Rodriguez, this year's PAB president, said that the court-ordered deadline of an election via public meeting by 5 p.m. on April 23 would be tough to meet.
"I think that nine business days to put together elections isn't preferable, considering the original process of interviews took over a month, but we'll complete it," he said. "We don't have an option."
Rodriguez said that he, PAB Vice President John Ronquillo and the rest of the board would nominate two candidates each for the offices of president and vice president. Students will vote on the candidates in a town hall meeting.
Dunham and Pedicone have each been nominated.
The other two candidates had not been nominated at press time.
Dunham said he stood behind the court's decision.
"I think I'm the most qualified candidate, so I will run again," he added.
When the court heard the case Friday, Moody said that it represents a bigger problem with student government and its constitution.
"In a democratic process, if someone is voted in that doesn't do a good job, the people can vote in new leadership," Moody said. "I hope that [student government] completely falls apart so that students can vote in new members."
Moody said Monday that he was pleased with the decision.
The court's decision included rewording the constitution. Instead of allowing as many students to run as want to run, the constitution now says that PAB can choose as few as two candidates each for president and vice president. Students would then vote on those nominees.
Reach the reporter at annemarie.moody@asu.edu.
